Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility

Claiming an overarching goal to ‘eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable development’, the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) was created in 1999 to ‘act as a catalyst to increase private sector participation in emerging markets’.

It was established by several national development ministries, regional development banks and the World Bank Group, where it is housed, and focuses on energy, transport, water and sanitation, and telecoms.

Since those are sectors in which the state has played a leading role, with millions of workers employed in public enterprises worldwide, PPIAF’s projects can lead to retrenchments and other negative effects for workers.

On the other hand, by consulting workers and their unions about change, and negotiating the terms of change with them, governments and restructured utility companies can promote better work organisation for better services.

PPIAF produced a toolkit to provide guidance to stakeholders about the management of the labour-related aspects of infrastructure reform projects. The primary contractor was Adam Smith International, and Public World was commissioned to advise on content and outreach, and to write the chapters on impacts, legal frameworks and dialogue with workers and their organisations.

You can download the Labor Issues in Infrastructure Reform toolkit here.